this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
504 points (78.6% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
12436 readers
765 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Spitting on someone is an assault. Insulting someone is not. The two things are not comparable.
To be clear, I wouldn't escalate anything in general, if someone cuts in line or whatever, not worth picking a fight for such silly things. But if you spit to someone in their face, getting punched is something that it's well within the realm of things you should expect. From an ethical point of view, I probably wouldn't do either, but in general spitting is what turned this uncivilized event (from both parties) into a fight.
Self-defense laws vary a lot across countries. At least where I live, defense has to be motivated and proportional. If someone would slap you - for example - and you stab them, that probably wouldn't count as self-defense. I would personally disagree with you in that context, and probably a judge would too (at least here).
I don't like arguing from a legal standpoint, because a legal standpoint is not necessarily a moral one, but where I live, things are different.
Stabbing has always the risk of being fatal. No slur deserves death.
Edit: to expand to that, being motivated and proportional are two principles that I find very moral. I agree that legal and moral are not the same, but in this case I think the law is absolutely aligned with my moral. Stabbing someone for a slap or a slur is completely disproportionate and I would absolutely not consider it justified. Being assaulted and fearing from your life, that is different.
Punching someone also has the risk of being fatal.
Absolutely, but a much much lower risk than a stab. Since we are reasoning on the morals and not from a purely rhetorical point of view, we can't consider them the same. Also that's why I specifically said "slapping" in my example. Slapping is still physical violence, it's still an attack, but it's an example of something that doesn't warrant a potentially fatal response.
Pretty sure that neither of them are Mike Tyson, so uhhh
"Punching someone in the head can be just as fatal as stabbing."
I'm genuinely surprised people don't know this.
Did he go for the head? I haven't seen any video or articles mentioning the intended target.